Ode to the Wintry Day

Today's Boring Tracking

Well, it's been over a week (8 days) since I got off my butt and rode the bike anywhere.  The very cold weather has reduced my enthusiasm, and I've been frantically hauling and splitting and stacking firewood these last few weeks.  All of which might be good excuses but excuses aren't good enough when I'm trying to stay healthy.  When I was still gainfully employed I rode almost every day in much colder weather, but then, before the US economy took a free-fall, I had the motivation of having to go to work anyway and riding the last 7 or more miles each day was easily obtainable.
Anyway.  Back to the "El Rancho No Tengo", as I saw painted on the door of a beat-up truck years ago.
I fired up the wonderful old Ford tractor this morning and used it to haul firewood, grade the goat-path road, clear a bit of the neighbor's yard, and dig and haul gravel and dirt "Borrowed" from various areas along the road to fill potholes and depressions in the aforesaid road.
The "Powerful Steering" on the tractor is faint, and I have to really strain with both arms to steer the dern thing, and I had to continually get on and off the tractor and man-handle huge log chunks and stumps out of the neighbor's chipwood-pile and into the tractor front bucket.  Which is exercise, and leaves me puffing, but I doubt it's efficacy in acting as aerobic exercise, i.e., getting the pulse rate up and maintaining it for a while.  Shortly after noon I decided I was done and it was time to dig the bike out of the small snowbank next to the  shed and go for a ride, even if short.
Tink and Jazzy, the world's cutest and most wonderful lap-dogs, were all excited to go.   By the time I snarfed a bacon-cheese-jalapeno lunch sandwich and got everything ready to go it was past 2:00 PM, which I thought left us plenty of time.
We did the standard-but-tiring ride up to the Post Office.  It was a bit cool outside but I had to stop 2 times in less than 3 miles to peel off layers to avoid getting hot and sweaty, which of course leads to getting really cold in the sweaty spots.  The cyclist's dilemma, trying to regulate body heat.
We arrived at the P.O. fine and dandy.  I was doing OK and my blood glucose checked fine at 147 (a bit high for a diabetic on insulin but it drops quickly when exercising).  I planned to get the junk mail and hit the road for several more miles on my favorite eastbound loop out to Mountain Valley Road and back on Entranosa and Tumbleweed.
When I came out of the P.O., however, I found Tinkerbell visibly shivering.  She has a nice thick coat, but evidently the breeze was penetrating it and she was COLD.
I thought better of riding a longer ride and decided to take the girls home instead.  Jazzy was in her belly papoose-style snuggle harness and staying warmer than Tink, but neither of them had Jacque's cute and effective doggie vests on.
As we bounced off the pavement of Frost Road and up the hill on our dirt, rock, and gravel mile of goat path, I stopped.  The girls normally get antsy and need to "do their business" while riding around, and I used this for an excuse to take a short break myself.  We no sooner dismounted than Jacque drove up, at which point the dogs rejoiced at the idea of getting in the warm car and riding the rest of the way home with "Mom".
Ride Started: 2:42 PM    Ride Ended:  4:04 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  39 F      Highest Temp:  53 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.50
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.8 MPH                               7.1 MPH                     25.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 9 mins                        46 minutes                 22 minutes